Story Three Lions on the Shirt? - Match Day: Northamptonshire fight back!!!

[timmy94]

Nice writing "mi amigo"(i speak spanish too)
Looks like you could take this,a well needed win for you
KIU!

 

[Burnsy1]

Great to see this back Tom. Lets hope for another long run.

 

[coolz_hari]

Fantastic stories .Good to see you are back again

 

[bladescape]

........I thought it was coming back!!!!!!

 

[Highlander999]

Chris Read battles on for Notts!!!

We knew that we had our work cut out, in getting a set Chris Read out. It would have to take a miracle piece of bowling/fielding or an awesome big of luck in our favour. Therefore we tried to starve Read of the strike and focus our attack on Ealham. He looked ok versus the spin twins of Crofty and Tom, but there were still deliveries that looked like they had a chance of getting him. Whenever, Read got against the spin bowlers, he looked to take the attack to them, and hit a couple of slog sweeps for six, straight over the sweepers head by the boundary ropes. We really were struggling to think of an answer.

As the sun began to beat down and the temperature at ground level, hotted up, Read hit a four to bring up his 50 in the 31st over. His 50, had come off 58 balls, and had been a sensible knock. It had been a good experience for me, because whilst my 100 had been a nice innings, it was without the pressure of chasing a biggish total, and here I was seeing a mature innings of keeping the required run-rate in check. The Notts fans did show their appreciation, as he received a large round of applause, and you could even see the veterans like Matty Hayden look on with approval.

We needed to get him out soon!!!

Mark was pulling his hair out, not only because Chris Read had just reached his 50, but also because in that over, Ealham and Read went flying past the 50 partnership, with both beginning to use their feet well versus the spinners and beginning to pierce the infielders and clocking boundaries a lot more regularly then before. It was time for Operation "Eagle Strike"!!! Whilst Read and Ealham had a chat in the middle of the pitch after reaching their 50, Mark, Cooky, Crofty, Tom and myself had a little meeting,

"Right operation Eagle Strike time!"

"Is that the one where we reveal Crofty is a Lithuanian woman called Adrianna?"

"No, that's operation Butterfly. This one is actually relevant to the game."

"Hang on, we actually made one relevant? I thought we were drunk when we made these up?"

"We were, but might as well give Eagle Strike a go. Basically Tom and Crofty bowl yorkers, till the Notts guys lose patience and try and hit them out the ground."

"This won't work "

"Oy, don't be so negative, in principle it works..."

How desperate were we. Reduced to employing plans that we had made down at the pub after a few pints. Still, things couldn't get much worse then they already were.

"Ok guys. "Eagle Strike!!!"

There was a faint shout down at fine leg where Dizzy was,

"Is that the one where we reveal Crofty is a Lithuanian woman called Adrianna?"

I cracked up at this as the big man himself frowned at the fact that our random plans had not all been forgotten in the haze of alcohol.

For the next over or so, Crofty and Tom got those yorkers fired in, and it did slow the run-rate down slightly. Eventually though, Read planted one foot forward and managed to hit a yorker (now a full toss away for six) I knew this wouldn't work forever. At the other end, Tom did appear to have Ealham frustrated.

Amazingly enough, Eagle Strike worked!!!!!!

Ealham looked to shuffle across his stumps and work Tom away down to fine leg. Tom saw the trigger movement though and fired in a dart ball, right where his feet had been. Ealham was now at a 90 degree angle to the ball and completely missed the ball. He was walking before the umpires finger had been raised, it was slap bang in front of middle stump.

"MAAAA, operation Eagle Strike worked. Let's all be drunk for team meetings, it seems to work for us "

No one could believe that an idea thought up when we were beved could actually work, but it had. Notts were now 162/4 and the match had been swung back to anyone's game now. Bloody exciting stuff!!!!!! :banana2

This meant that Bilal Shafayat was brought to the crease, who does everything. He is a good bowler, batsman, fielder and keeper. Some people just get it all : He came out looking like a windmill with all the swings he was doing.

"Tom. I think he plans to cart you away for six, Stuart Broad () style."

"On ya way, Baker. Middle peg, on the ground."

"HAHA, don't talk about it, do it!!!"

I do think I should start a pyshic hotline. How about Mystic Tom? "Let Tom tell you what the future holds." Maybe a good career if the cricket fails First ball, bit of width from Tom and adios ball, see you next year. Straight over gully, straight over the sweeper, straight over the guy in row 5. A massive six. Well at least we were going to get some fireworks "

With Shafayat, swinging it like a windmill, but not always connecting and Read looking to push and run, us fielders had to be on our toes, constantly. We knew now that every run could be the difference between victory or defeat. If only we could get Chris Read :upray We knew he was the vital wicket as he could really tee off at any moment now.

However, for the moment he was still nurdling and we could deal with that. At the start of the 35th over, Shafayat had been the only contributor in their partnership and Notts were left needing exactly 90 runs for victory from 10 overs with plenty of batting still to come. It did look slightly in their favour, but not that much. If we could just get a couple of quick wickets, this match would be ours.

Crofty and Tom had been fantastic with the ball, so far and had really slowed the Notts guys down. Jamie would probably have to bowl and random couple of overs, and the same with Dizzy, but myself and Cooky would be the death bowlers. There would be a huge amount of pressure on us, to get that ball into the blockhole and guide us to victory.

Notts need 90 runs at 9.0 runs per over.​

 

[Left_Hander]

Great to see this story back!

The required run-rate is starting to get a little high now. You might win your first match of the season!

 

[OrderDX]

great update again mate i have to say Read is destroying Glamorgan, i think if you get his wicket you will win if not you will lose. Great presentation as always, and operation eagle was a success lol!

 

[Dr. Pepper]

Great! It's back again! :

How the hell can you call that an f-ing update? A five year old could've done better in their sleep. Really awful. Also you can't even bowl. You take one lucky wicket and you think you're the friggin' Pope! And don't even get me started on your hair. Just don't. You're so crap, that Read is winning the game for the opposition!

Shocking.

 

[Kiko_97]

Tom you suck, I don't know why people read this!!!! Every 2 weeks it's stopped for a year.

 

[Highlander999]

Yeah, funny when Mani does it, you can "jog on" as Matt would say

 

[adyhorn]

Wow, this will be close. I have a feeling Read might just scrape them there if he can stay in.

 

[Pakistani Army]

90 off 60 balls is a difficult task. Despite Read's heroics I feel that as the saying goes "One swallow does not make it a Summer." Nottingham will fall short.

My reasons for this are firstly, due to the 4 wickets being lost it applies more pressure on Read and Shafayat to get the runs as the lower-order will be incapable if I dare so of doing so.

Secondly, with Gillespie & Cook bowling 6 out of the 10 overs, Glamorgan have reliable and in my view good death bowlers which adds more pressure to get the runs off the 4 overs with 3 being bowled by you Baker.

Finally, Tom. If you keep your 3 overs to less than 25 runs, I feel that Glamorgan will have this match done and dusted

Sorry for the lengthy reply :cool:

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Well this is gonna go down to the wire. I feel Nottingham will just fall short. Great to see this story back tom KIU

 

[bladescape]

Is it just me or does someone always hit you for six??????

 

[Highlander999]

It wasn't me!!!!!!! I just predicted it, with my Mystic Meg abilities

Cheers for the comments everyone especially Arslaan for the small essay which pleases me as it's good to know you are reading it :cool: